text: HIV, the retrovirus that causes AIDS in humans, produces a single primary RNA transcript, which is alternatively spliced in multiple ways to produce over 40 different mRNAs. Equilibrium among differentially spliced transcripts provides multiple mRNAs encoding different products that are required for viral multiplication. One of the differentially spliced transcripts contains the tat gene, in which exon 2 is a cassette exon that may be skipped or included. The inclusion of tat exon 2 in the RNA is regulated by competition between the splicing repressor hnRNP A1 and the SR protein SC35. Within exon 2 an exonic splicing silencer sequence (ESS) and an exonic splicing enhancer sequence (ESE) overlap. If A1 repressor protein binds to the ESS, it initiates cooperative binding of multiple A1 molecules, extending into the 5’ donor site upstream of exon 2 and preventing the binding of the core splicing factor U2AF35 to the polypyrimidine tract. If SC35 binds to the ESE, it prevents A1 binding and maintains the 5’ donor site in an accessible state for assembly of the spliceosome. Competition between the activator and repressor ensures that both mRNA types (with and without exon 2) are produced.